A Silent Singer A Silent Singer BY Clara Morris [Illustration] NEW YORK BRENTANO’S 1899 COPYRIGHT 1899 BY CLARA MORRIS HARRIOTT TO That small public of my very own--the two who have listened to me unweariedly--criticised gently, and encouraged heartily--to that patient pair--my Mother and my Husband, I dedicate these little stories. CLARA MORRIS HARRIOTT. May 1st, 1899. Contents PAGE A Silent Singer 1 An Old Hulk 35 The Gentleman Who Was Going To Die 71 Old Myra’s Waiting 93 “In Paris, Suddenly----” 161 Two Buds 173 The Ambition of MacIlhenny 197 John Hickey: Coachman 217 Black Watch 241 Dinah 257 Life’s Aftermath 293 A Silent Singer A Silent Singer It had been a hot day, and the minister had brought us, my mother and myself, from the city to his country home, in a mysterious, antediluvian species of buggy. Of all the race of men it is the country minister alone who can discover this particular breed of buggy. They are always gifted with strange powers of endurance; never being purchased until they have seemingly reached the point of dissolution, they will thereafter, for years and years, shake and totter, and rattle and rock, carrying all the time not only people but almost every conceivable kind of merchandise, from a few pounds of groceries to a pumpkin or a very youthful calf, without coming one step nearer their final wreck. This special buggy could hold one person in comfort, two in discomfort and three in torture. I had been the party of the _third_ part in that day’s ride, and worn out and crumpled and dusty, we passed from darkness into a room full of lamplight and faces. I was trying to support myself steadily upon a pair of legs so recently aroused from dumb sleep that they had barely reached the ticklish stage, and the ten thousand needle-prickling power was in full blast when the Rev. Hyler introduced me to his seven sons. My dazzled eyes and tired mind made them seem full seventeen to me, and they were so big and rough and noisy, I hung my head, confused, disappointed, frightened even, and then I felt the gentle pressure of her hot little hand on mine.